Typical computer systems, especially computer systems using graphical user interface (GUI) systems, such as Microsoft WINDOWS, are optimized for accepting user input from one or more discrete input devices such as a keyboard for entering text, and a pointing device such as a mouse with one or more buttons for driving the user interface.
Some computing systems have expanded the input and interaction systems available to a user by allowing the use of a stylus to input information into the systems. The stylus may take the place of both the keyboard (for data entry) as well as the mouse (for control). Some computing systems receive handwritten electronic information or electronic ink and immediately attempt to convert the electronic ink into text. Other systems permit the electronic ink to remain in the handwritten form.
Computer users may switch between languages associated with their user interface. This means that dialog boxes, buttons, menu items, taskbar items and the like may have various representations that conform to a selected language. For example if a user switches from English to French, as the desired language for a user interface, then various portions of the user interface may be modified to reflect this change. This ability to switch between languages for a user is due to the fact that many users are fluent in more than one language. In some cases, terms or expressions cannot be expressed in a first language and instead the user desires to express them in another language.
In a stylus-based input system, users may create electronic ink and have that ink recognized by a handwriting recognition application. In these stylus-based input systems, switching between languages is cumbersome. This difficulty arises not necessarily in the pathway used to make a change, but in the number of steps required to make the change multiplied by the number of times one would change between languages. For example a person may be writing in English using a stylus then switch to Japanese to write a phrase then switch back to English. This change between languages can become cumbersome and distracting to users when the users' concentration is directed to the creation of the electronic ink, rather than the steps required to switch between languages. Accordingly, an improved approach is needed to permit easy switching between recognizers to be associated with received handwriting.